Search Results for 'Lieutenant'

38 results found.

Pleased with his friendly reception in Dublin in 1903, His Majesty King Edward VII determined to visit the wilds of Connemara and Kerry. Such a visit presented a number of problems for Dublin Castle, not least was security at a time when nationalism was rearing its head, and seldom lost an opportunity to express itself by demostrations and protests. I learn something of these concerns from a delightful book Memories: Wise and Otherwise. by The Rt Hon Sir Henry Robinson, Bart, KCB. (Published by Cassell and Co, London, 1923). Robinson was head of the Local Government Board in Ireland, and a man, who in the tradition of Somerville and Ross, saw humour in the Irish character, and indeed in the efforts of Britain to maintain control in Ireland.

Last night’s county board meeting of Mayo GAA took centre stage both nationally and locally following the recommendation of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes as the new senior football managerial team last Saturday night. The handling of the appointment has been the hot topic of discussion around the country since it was announced on Saturday night.

There is a sad little story told by one of the so called Lady Dudley Nurses in Carna shortly after the nursing scheme had been introduced in 1903. A nurse had been attending a sick child for some time. The child had suffered, but was getting better. One day the nurse brought her a doll, with a smiley face, and nice clothes. The girl had never seen a doll before. She held it in awe and with gentleness. But the next time the nurse visited the house the child was in despair. “Oh nurse,” she cried, “the little one hasn’t eaten a thing since you were here and I am afraid she will die, and I’ll be sick again wanting her back”...

When the smoke cleared at the Sabine Pass on September 8 1863, a narrow channel on the border between Texas and Louisiana, two Union ships, the USS Clifton and the USS Sachem, had their steam engines blown out. They had beached on the shallows, and had signalled their surrender. The remaining invasion fleet, and its 5,000 troops, had made a hasty retreat, giving an incredible victory to the 43 Irishmen at Fort Griffin.

Earlier this year Galway Diary discussed the evictions implemented by Marcella Netterville and John Gerrard on their 7,000 acre estate at Ballinlass, near Mount Bellew Co Galway. In 1846 more that 400 families were heartlessly thrown out on the road, without any compensation. The land was being cleared to fatten cattle, which would have been far more profitable than tenants; many of whom, as the Great Famine tightened its terrible grip, were unable to pay their way. The Times of London famously commented that the Ballinlass evictions showed ‘the sublime indifference to social considerations of which no one but an Irish landowner is capable.’

When World War I finished and the National Shell Factory on Earl’s Island closed down, the buildings were taken over by the 6th Dragoon Guards who had a reputation for wanton brutality. This was unusual in that most well armed British army units, with few having a role in the intelligence conflict, were rarely attacked during the War of Independence in the west of Ireland. While individual RIC men became defined as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it was army regiments, rather than individual soldiers, that became so defined.